Today: Mexico may have lost to Portugal 2-1, but they still were able to make it through to the next round since Angola tied with Iran. “El Tri” did not play well today and will have to improve significantly if they want to continue in the tournament. Though the officiating was poor, Mexico squandered several opportunities to tie the game including Omar Bravo shooting a penalty kick above the crossbar. Mexico will play the winner of this afternoon’s match between Argentina and the Netherl
ands. (Kickoff set for 2:55pm EST). Both countries have had an interesting history playing each other in three previous World Cups including the 1978 final in Buenos Aires. The New York Times’ World Cup blog has a great post on past World Cup matches such as YouTube clips to Dennis Bergkamp’s stunning game winning tally in 1998. Even though both teams are expected to rest some of their starters, odds are it will be a great match between the free-flowing Argentines and the “total football” of the Dutch.
Tomorrow: Brazil pl
ays its final group match against Japan fully knowing that they have already qualified for the round of 16. Brazil has failed to impress so far, especially Ronaldo’s performance, and their victories over Croatia and Australia were average at best. Japan needs to win in order to keep their slim hopes of making it to the next round alive. (Kickoff set for 2:55pm EST).
Speaking of “slim hopes”, the U.S. needs to win its game against Gha
na and hope for a favorable result in the other Group D match between Italy and the Czech Republic. The “Stars and Stripes” will be without defender Eddie Pope and midfielder Carlos Bocanegra who were sent off in the previous match against Italy. The U.S. will need to make up for the loss of those key players and jump start their dormant offense if they are to have any chance of winning. (Kickoff set for 9:55am EST).
Friday: Guess what? No World Cup matches with Latin American and Caribbean squads on the last day of the group stage. Though there are plenty of blogs covering the World Cup, in case you still wish to follow the games.
soccer, world cup, Mexico, united states, brazil,
argentina
Hi,
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of Coca-Cola sponsoring weallspeakfootball website and the view by some podcasters like Bicyclemark (who links to your blog) that to join in the scheme and take the corporate gifts like tickets to the games, free accommodation, and Coca-Cola is a necessary means to achieve an end?
Please check my blog for more links and info if you want.
Thanks for your comment and linking to both the wespeakfootball and BicycleMark blogs. After reading the blogs I have no qualms about podcasters taking part in the wespeakfootball site. Though it may somewhat discomforting that a massive corporation is co-opting bloggers in order to sell more soft drinks, none of the site’s bloggers are making a lot of noise about promoting Coca-Cola every time they post. They seem to be going out of their way to promote being in Germany and enjoying the World Cup “experience.” More to the point of your question, can being involved with wespeakfootball be a means to an end? Possibly if it’s done correctly. For BicycleMark he can exploit his time at wespeakfootball to promote his blog and, perhaps more importantly, tactfully provide his views and opinions that a large business like Coca-Cola would disagree with.
ReplyDelete(Just to let you know, the reason BicycleMark linked to this blog has to do with a podcast he conducted with Latin Americanist founder Taylor Kirk: http://ourlatinamerica.blogspot.com/2006/03/bicycle-mark-podcast.html. I’ve never met him nor have I read his blog until today).
Thanks, it would be great if you could contribute to a debate about the need for a global boycott of Coca-Cola between yourself and Karmabanque.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your opinion hope to here from you soon.
I would rather not debate over a global boycott of Coke since I'm afraid I don't know enough about the topic (aside from a little bit of knowledge of "killer Coke" and Colombia). Thank you for the offer, nevertheless.
ReplyDelete